On windows 2003 R2 and Windwos 2008, Distributed File System replication is handles by the new DFSR service. You can check the status of replciation using the DFSRDIAG command, but if you're on a windows 2008 server, be careful to run this as Administrator otherwise you'll get an error "[ERROR] Access is denied when connecting to WMI services".
Friday, 19 November 2010
Tuesday, 16 November 2010
Netstat tips and tricks for Windows Server admins
What process is running on the open port: Tracking down which process identifier (PID) has a port open is quite easy when netstat is run with the -a -n -o combination of parameters
A useful article explaining the netstat command parameters, especially the example I'm always looking for which shows the process name.
Friday, 12 November 2010
Serial ports created during a P2V process & why you should delete them asap
A quick tip for machines that have just been P2V'd with vConverter: Make sure you remove the TTY / serial devices which are automatically created. These are class as mapped host devices but unlike a mapped host cd drive, they cannot be disconnected without powering off the new VM. As a result you can't vMotion the new VM and hence it stops DRS from being able to migrate the VM and also you can't put the host into maintenance mode (such as during a host update patch process)
VMWare iSCSI access policy in vSphere ESX4.1
The iSCSI access policy is the method VMware uses to leverage multiple paths to iSCSI storage.By default even if you have multiple paths from VMWare to your storage, it will use an active/passive configuration, usually meaning that you'll have a 1Gb/s bottleneck (unless you're fortunate enough to be using 10Gb/s networking. To change the policy in older versions of VMware, you updated the properties of each volume on each server and changed the drop down to the value you want (usually Round Robin). The change was instantaneous meaning a misclick of the list actually changed the value. In ESX 4.1 this behaviour has been changed by adding a button next to the drop down. You need to make sure you click this button for the change to be applied, otherwise you'll be wasting your time. 
Tuesday, 13 April 2010
Sysprep in Windows 2008
One of the most often used tool of sysadmins who need to deploy large numbers of similar hardware is the sysprep tool. This Microsoft tool anonymises key system components so that cloned machines end up unique rather than duplicates of each other which can cause a wide range issues when they are networked together. There are many different versions of sysprep available for the various versions of windows and the different flavours of service pack which can make it a nightmare to find the correct version. Thankfully microsoft in their wisdom have made the process simpler since the release of Vista, by incorporating sysprep into the OS installation as standard. Assuming you've deployed windows to the default directory you'll find the tools in c:\windows\system32\sysprep\sysprep.exe The options are also much simplified, with the option of "Enter System Out-of-Box Experience (OOBE)" in combination with the "Generalise" tickbox giving the required options for cloning the system.
Wednesday, 7 April 2010
Unknown status for servers in ITAssistant
ITAssistant often seems to give unknown status to servers for no apparent reason. The usual fix for this is just to refresh the inventory of the unknown servers (annoying but quite quick to do).
However sometimes servers go unknown and won't respond to an inventory, even if you bounce the ITAssistant services or the SNMP services on the remote server.
The first step is to try the troubleshooting tool in ITAssistant...
and run the SNMP connectivity test...
The result should show a list of SNMP agents installed on the server. A healthy Dell Openmanage report will list the OpenManage Server Agent, plus any additional components that were selected (such as storage management.
If the OpenManage SNMP agent isn't showing you'll probably only see a couple of agents.
e.g.
1) A problem server
Connected to the agent software(s) - [broadcom, NA], [mib2, NA]
2) An OK server
Connected to the agent software(s) - [broadcom, NA], [cminventorysnmp, NA], [drac3, NA], [mib2, NA], [OpenManage Server Agent, 5.8.0], [storagemgmt, NA]
2) Uninstall SNMP
3) Reinstall SNMP
4) Reinstall Dell OpenManageFinally go back into ITAssistant and re-run the troubleshooting tool to make sure you get the full SNMP output for OpenManage and if this is ok, re-inventory the server in OpenManage and your unknown status should clear. Of course if you take the opportunity to upgrade OpenManage you may find your firmware is out of date and you get a warning status, but that's a different subject...
Friday, 12 February 2010
Dell iSCSI Tape Library devices not appearing
The Dell TL2000 and TL4000 tape libraries both have the option to be used with iSCSI. This comes in the form of a SAS to iSCSI bridge which installs in the unit. The SAS ports are then connected to the Bridge card with an adapter cable (supplied) and the network ports on the card are connected to your iSCSI network. The microsoft iSCSI initiator is used to connect to the iSCSI bridge which presents the tape library hardware as a series of targets.At first glance the first target appears to be duplicated but do not be fooled (like I was). These are actually the first tape drive *and* the robotic library itself. Once all the devices are logged on, you should see the Robotic library and all the drives in your changer in backup exec although you may need to rerun the device detection wizard in BE first.
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